The Running Community

Apologies for such sporadic posts. I’m in the midst of writing my manuscript and preparing for my pre-thesis defense committee meeting and my blogging has dropped in priority.  I did set out a resolution to write at least one post a week so here’s my post for the week. 🙂

I wanted to write a little bit about the running community. During the past few months, I’ve met these fantastic runners and I just wanted to share three things I’ve learned about runners.

Runners are extremely supportive. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more supportive bunch of people. Every runner I’ve met online or in person has always encouraged me to pursue my run goals. They get excited hearing about them and push me to keep going even when I’m feeling discouraged after a bad run. Also, if you didn’t know, most runners will stop and help out a fellow runner in need (See examples A and B).

Runners are social creatures. Ever do 10+ miles alone? It’s not fun. Runners, for the most part, thrive when running with other runners. There’s some type of camaraderie that’s formed during a run. I’ve done a few social long runs and I can definitely say that there is a difference in the run. I go to these runs alone and always find it refreshing when other runners strike up a conversation with me during the run. Even if we’re not speaking, the fact that they’re there with me running the same course makes it better somehow. Speaking of which, if you are in San Diego and need a long run buddy, let me know! I have to start training for the Chicago marathon soon and running in the summer for 13+ miles is going to be brutal alone. 

Runners are just amazing people. Maybe I’m just meeting the right people, but every runner I’ve met has been awesome. Maybe it’s the endorphins? Last weekend, I met a runner who asked me if I took a minute out of each day to appreciate the fact that I was living in San Diego. He was just so grateful to be living here and it definitely made me take a step back and appreciate how lucky I was. 🙂 That same weekend, I met another runner who was completely supportive of my goal to run a sub 4 marathon. Yikes! Did I just write that – a sub 4 marathon? Ack. Anyway, she started giving me tips and was super excited about the goal. I told her I was concerned about running long runs alone this summer and she immediately asked her friend if he could tell me about social run groups in San Diego. Because of that connection, I found out about a lot of SD run groups and am hoping to check each of them out. 🙂 

So there you have it – a few things I’ve learned about the running community. What have you learned? Care to share?